USA - United Soccer Leagues

The United Soccer Leagues started in 1986 as the Southwest Indoor
Soccer League, and has since grown into the largest professional
league ever in the United States, comprising over 140 teams in both
indoor, outdoor, amateur and women's leagues. The league originally
started in 1986 playing only indoor soccer, but added an outdoor season
starting in 1989. Since then, the outdoor league has grown rapidly to
become the primary grass-roots league operating at the minor league
level. In 1997, the USL absorbed the A-League teams, creating a new
USSF sanctioned Division 2 league (called "USL Division 1") of 24 teams,
as well as a USSF sanctioned 3rd division (called "USL Division 2"),
and and the Premier Development League (an amateur circuit, informally
the "4th division"). These comprise over 100 teams. The Women's league
(W-League), the I-League (Indoor) and the Super Y-League (Youth) expand
the USL into a wide territory. The league has flourished, with nationwide
presence and the stronger teams drawing in excess of 4,000 fans.
Many thanks to eRic Vormelker
(netminder@sbcglobal.net)
for providing much of this information, as well as Mark Hlavenka of
the USL who researched much of the remainder from old USISL annual
media guides. Some of the earliest material was provided by Kevin
Raymond Mitzel (kevin@npsl.com).

Outdoor scoring system (1989-1995):
6 points for a win, 4 points for a shootout win, 2 points for a shootout loss,
0 points for a regulation loss, 1 point for each goal scored up to 3 per game.
Indoor scoring system (1986-1998):
4 points for a win, 3 points for a shootout win, 1 point for a shootout loss,
0 points for a regulation loss.
Outdoor scoring system (1996-1998):
3 points for a regulation win, 1 point for a shootout win, 0 points for a
shootout loss, 0 points for a regulation loss.
Outdoor scoring system (1999):
4 points for a regulation win, 2 points for a shootout win, 1 point for a
shootout loss, 0 points for a regulation loss + 1 bonus point when scoring
three or more goals in a game.
Outdoor scoring system (2000-2002):
4 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss + 1 bonus point
when scoring three or more goals in a game.
Outdoor scoring system (2003-present):
3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss.